This invention relates to improvements in rear view mirrors for vehicles and, more particularly, to a rear view mirror for a first, trailing vehicle to be used for signalling to the driver of a second, leading vehicle or to a pedestrian in front of the first vehicle.
In U.S. application Ser. No. 07/809,647, filed Dec. 17, 1991, now abandoned, a rear view mirror assembly is disclosed in which a courtesy brake lamp system, including several brake lamps are located near the front of the vehicle having a rear view mirror system. The lamps in the front of the vehicle provide additional brake signals to inform a driver of a leading vehicle that the driver of the trailing vehicle has applied the brakes. Thus, the driver in the leading vehicle does not have to be concerned about what is behind him because he knows that the trailing vehicle driver has applied the brakes for one or more reasons. Several embodiments of a courtesy lamp system for a rear view mirror are disclosed in this application including embodiments where the brake lamp is in the vehicle near the upper margin of the windshield, where the lamp is between the headlights of the vehicle, and where the lamp is on the front edge of the hood of the vehicle.
Application Ser. No. 07/815,573, filed Dec. 27, 1991, now abandoned, discloses improvements to the structure disclosed in application Ser. No. 07/809,647. The second application covers a courtesy lamp at the rear of the vehicle. Switch structure can be carried on the steering wheel of the vehicle to control the operation of the lamps on the rear view mirror and at the rear of the vehicle.
In application Ser. No. 07/911,259, filed Jul. 7, 1992, now abandoned, a rear view mirror having a front courtesy brake lamp is disclosed in which the mirror is adjustably mounted by a pivot pin about a generally vertical axis on a housing containing the lamp. The housing has only provisions for a single lamp. The use of the structure of this application overcomes the problem of not being able to adjust the rear view mirror when the same has a brake warning or courtesy lamp associated with it. It is thus important to try to overcome these limitations and disadvantages and the present invention does this by providing front and rear courtesy lamps and a front brake lamp on the housing of a rear view mirror assembly which can be adjusted at will, rather than being affixed as in prior disclosures mentioned above.
In the structure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,190,123, one side that is closer to the driver blocks the driver's view since it runs perpendicular to the windshield. The other side will not block the driver's view so it does not have to run perpendicular to the windshield. Also two lamps are mounted within one housing to serve only one purpose.
The structure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,665,392 does not combine the signal light with the rear view mirror. It blocks the driver's view above the rear view mirror.
The structure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,996 has the disadvantage in that the display side and the rear view mirror runs parallel. Thus the position of the display depends on the position of the rear view mirror. Since most of the time, the rear view mirror does not run parallel to the windshield, the display will not run parallel to the windshield either. This structure makes the display difficult or impossible to be seen from a certain angle in the front of a motor vehicle.
The structure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,400,655 uses English words for lamps. This may cause problems for people who do not speak English.